The invention relates generally to roofing materials or other building materials normally employed as cover materials over a wood roof deck or stud wall and more specifically to such cover materials and methods for incorporating therein a plurality of integrally formed nail tabs or a continuous reinforcing strip.
The Typical Roof Composition.
A roof installation generally comprises at least two distinctive layers applied over a roof deck with each layer being comprised of a separate roofing material. The first layer is an underlayment, usually a substantially asphalt saturated substrate material that attaches directly to the roof deck, oftentimes a wood frame of wood studs and plywood sheets or board material. The second layer is made up of the shingles, rolled roofing, wood shakes, and metal or tile roof coverings themselves. The shingles and rolled roofing are substantially made from a fiberglass or other inorganic fibrous material coated with a substantially asphalt or asphalt-mix coating, stone granules and other materials. Specific materials, layers of materials and actual application methods differ by manufacturer and type of building application. Normally, the underlayment assists in making the roof resistant to water intrusion.
The Typical Underlayment Substrate.
The underlayment is usually an asphalt saturated substrate. The starting material for the underlayment, or the substrate material itself, is a base composite material usually referred to as “dry felt” or “organic felt”, but the substrate material could also be a fiberglass mat or other inorganic material mat or a hybrid of both. Examples of types of dry felt starting material are rag, paper, wood sawdust and could include fiberglass or other inorganic material, oftentimes in a fibrous state, although other suitable starting base materials may be employed. The starting base material, in a preferred embodiment, is a fibrous paper called dry felt made from treating recyclable cardboard, mixed recycled papers and wood sawdust or a fibrous mat made from inorganic materials chemically or mechanically formed into a fibrous state; however, this invention is not limited thereto. The term “substrate” used herein is used generically for all suitable starting base material including dry felt, fiberglass mat and polyester mat or any other base material on which a composite roofing or building material is built upon. Dry felt, when saturated with an asphalt-based material, produces an underlayment roofing material known in the trade as “tar paper” or “saturated felt,” which is produced in various grades depending upon thickness and weight. Fiberglass mat and polyester mat when coated with an asphalt, rubber-asphalt or asphalt-mix material produce the base substrate for shingles and other residential and commercial rolled roofing products.
The Underlayment Installation.
Regardless of the type of underlayment roofing material that has been employed, common practice in the installation industry has been to unroll a length of the underlayment material and affix each length to the roof deck or building sides support sheets or boards at a plurality of locations so that it stays in place prior to the installation of the covering shingles. The affixing or fastening devices for this material are generally staples and nails. Staples and nails are readily applied by power devices; however, both are notoriously susceptible to either pulling out of the sheets or boards when there is uplift on the underlayment or, when the staples or nails stay in place, tearing of the roofing material at the fastening locations. Even when shingling is to follow immediately, the underlayment can still be exposed alone to windy and other adverse conditions, such as when the installers walk or crawl on the underlayment.
Moreover, it is desirable that the underlayment be securely attached independently of the shingles, wood shakes, metal tile or other roof covering not only in the pre-shingling or pre-roof covering stage of installation, but also in the final installation. This is because shingles or other roof coverings do get damaged, blown or ripped off the roof under adverse weather conditions and a secure independently installed underlayment will provide some interim protection from the weather elements prior to roof repair. When the underlayment is not securely fastened, then the underlayment may be blown away or ripped concurrently with shingle damage.
Current Underlayment Installation Practice Using Washers.
To securely install the underlayment and avoid the tearing described above, it has long been a common practice to either use roofing nails with large heads or to use an auxiliary large washer or tab that lies underneath the nail head. Such large washer or tab successfully resists being torn through as with a smaller nail head of regular size. The use of such washer or tab has not been totally satisfactory, however, since such use is time consuming, somewhat expensive, and can be somewhat dangerous when the installation is on a fairly steeply pitched roof and/or the conditions are inclement. This is because it requires two hands to either slip the washer over the nail or to hold a tab down while driving the nail through. If the installer has to reach while only supporting himself or herself on a toe board, it may be uncomfortable and/or unstable to be unable to use either hand for additional support when necessary. Moreover, nails with large, unconventional heads are not recommended both because they are expensive and because they cannot be used in ordinary power equipment. Ordinarily, power equipment for driving nails can be loaded only with standard nail cartridges.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a gravure printing or offset printing process for the application of polymer nail tabs or continuous strips to underlayment or other roofing material.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide a lamination process for the deposition of polymer material to form nail tab or continuous strips on underlayment or other roofing material.
It is yet another advantage of the present invention to provide an underlayment or other roofing material with a plurality of nail tabs or continuous reinforcement strips applied through a gravure or other printing process.
It is still yet another advantage of the present invention to provide a method for applying polymer material through a pressurized delivery system in a gravure or other printing process.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide a system for depositing a plurality of generally rounded tabs to underlayment or other roofing material using an etched pattern or an open pattern, with no cell walls or other points of interruption within the pattern.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide a system for depositing a line of polymer material onto underlayment, or any other roofing material.